Woman Says Miami Cop Javier Ortiz Broke Her Wrist in Incident

Melissa Lopez and her boyfriend were at a Miami Art Week event in December 2017 when she stopped to check her phone for details about the next event they wanted to attend. When she looked up, a Miami cop was hauling away her boyfriend.

"I looked across the street and saw my boyfriend being arrested," Lopez tells New Times through her attorney.

She walked over to ask what was happening, but before she could cross the street, Miami Police Capt. Javier Ortiz charged toward her, she says. "He pushed me backward onto the pavement, and my wrist was broken."

After she was pushed to the ground, Lopez asked Ortiz if he was going to help her up. According to a complaint she later filed with the Civilian Investigative Panel (CIP) — an independent board that investigates allegations of police misconduct — Ortiz told her to get up on her own. Soon she was placed in a police car and taken to jail.

Although Lopez originally complained about Ortiz's misconduct in 2018, the CIP dropped its investigation after it was unable to get in touch with her. Lopez, who was dealing with her injury and a criminal court case, says she felt she couldn't respond at the time. Now that she has recovered and her case is closed, she wants to go after Ortiz in earnest. The CIP voted this past July 16 to reopen the investigation.

Lopez's story is only the latest in a laundry list of complaints against the former head of the local police union. According to the CIP, Ortiz has had 43 citizen complaints and 18 incidents of excessive force.

New Times has reported extensively about Ortiz's atrocious history of abuse of power, including taking selfies with people he's handcuffed, posting the contact information of a police critic online and encouraging his followers to go after her, and tasing a concertgoer at Ultra for no apparent reason. Despite all of this, Ortiz has avoided any major consequences in his tenure at the Miami Police Department. He's even garnered praise from Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.

Lopez's attorney says she is suing Ortiz for using excessive force and breaking her wrist, causing her to miss work for a number of weeks. Ortiz did not respond to messages from New Times seeking comment.